Brussels, 09/06/2010 (Agence Europe) - The Single European Payments Area (SEPA) Council met for the first time on Tuesday 8 June to discuss possible deadlines for the migration of national payments and direct debit to products conforming with the rules of the planned Single European Payment Area. Jointly chaired by the European Commission and the European Central Bank, the SEPA will meet twice a year, convening European banking federations, consumer groups and wholesalers, the main issuers and users of payment services.
The participants seem to have agreed on making 31 December 2012 the deadline for bank transfers (“credit transfers”) to meet SEPA rules. The decision of a deadline to be added to the draft legislation to be unveiled by the European Commission after the summer break (see EUROPE 10095) for the migration of direct debits labelled SEPA will depend on discussions to be held by the stakeholders in the next few weeks when they decide on how to deal with customers. The European consumer organisation BEUC wants guarantees on the introduction of SEPA direct debits. BEUC says that it must be compulsory for consumers' authorisation to be requested for SEPA direct debits. Bodies representing the interests of corporations want consumer authorisation to be optional because the process would be long and costly. Another issue to be settled is the migration of direct debit payment requests in Germany.
In parallel, the Commission has opened a separate consultation exercise (running until Wednesday 23 June) on the migration to SEPA bank transfers and direct debits. In a consultation document, it suggests different deadlines for different types of product - one year after the new EU legislation comes into force for bank transfers and two years after the legislation comes into force for direct debits. These deadlines would only apply to eurozone member states. Countries not in the euro would be given transition periods (for payments under the BACS system in the UK, for example). Extra time would also be given to niche products like dematerialised bills of exchange. In addition to setting deadlines, the draft EU legislation would make certain standards used in the payment industry compulsory and lay down penalties for infringement of the new EU rules. In a resolution adopted in March 2010, the EP said that any deadline for the migrating to SEPA products should fall before the end of 2012. (M.B./transl.fl)